Scott Spiro Blog

Well, for those of you who know me you already, you know how much I enjoy my Scottevests!  In this video (shot in freezing temperatures while in England), I take a closer look at the new Soft Shell jacket, the Fleece 5.0, a Microfleece Pullover, and a Q-zip. What’s nice about the Scottevests is that they are modular; they work great together to give you more protection against the elements, as well as more pockets as you need them. I must admit however, there were times when I lost items simply because I couldn’t remember what pocket I had put things in! Aside from this however, the soft shell did a great job protecting me against wind and rain while visiting the UK. Additionally, the Fleece 5.0 is not only comfortable, but also very warm and a perfect companion for the Soft Shell.

Customer Service

I also have to speak highly about Scottevest customer service. When my Soft Shell arrived in the mail, one of the magnets in the pockets seemed to be non-functional. I sent an e-mail to the Scottevest support team explaining that I was leaving for England and would not have time to get a new Soft Shell before my departure. I received a quick response telling me it was no problem, that a new one would be shipped to me and to simply return my Soft Shell when I got home. Great support.

Also, Scott Jordan the CEO of Scottevest knows how to use social media to engage with his customers. What other company can you contact the CEO so easily in regards to positive or negative feedback about the products? There are many companies out there that can take a lesson from Scott and his team on how to run a customer service department from the top down.

Travel

With some of the recent travel developments, security is tight. My flight back from Heathrow was delayed by over 2 hours while each passenger was searched along with their individual carry on bags. While this is certainly welcomed, be sure to empty everything out of your Scottevest as they will be searched thoroughly.

Suggestions

These are well made products and highly recommended. I do have a few suggestions for the Scottevest team that I outline in the video (though these are minor and far between). For example, It would be great if the headphone cable could be routed within the lining of the Microfleece Pullover as is done with the Soft Shell or Fleece 5.0. (currently the cables just run inside the jacket which can result in some tangles). There are also no headphone baskets in the Microfleece which it definitely needs.

What say you? Let me know how you’ve enjoyed your Scottevests and if you have any comments post them here.

From a Sustainable/Green IT perspective, or even from a general environmental standpoint, the Kindle makes sense.

For example, it costs the New York Times about twice the amount of money to print and deliver its paper than it costs to deliver to the Kindle. According to the Times’ Q308 10-Q, the company spends $63 million on raw materials and $148 million on salaries and benefits. Wages and benefits for just the newsroom run about $200 million.  Now, multiply the quarterly costs by four, then subtract 200 million. A rough estimate puts the Times’ annual delivery costs at $644 million per year. If the subscriber base of 803,000 loyal readers switched to a Kindle, their delivery costs should drop to $297 million according to the Business Insider.

And I’m not going to even speculate in regards to the number of trees saved if an electronic delivery method was implemented by every major newspaper in the US alone.

It’s ironic then that Amazon releases the Kindle DX the day after my informal sit down chat with Ingram Micro’s own Jason Beal.  Now, the DX offers a larger screen, and allows for automatic landscape viewing (similar to an iPhone) for reading newspapers and books. With a $489 price tag, I have to ask myself, “who is going to buy this new device?” (we’ll get to the DX in another blog post).

Jason is the Director of Sales for the Seismic Services division at Ingram Micro. As with most folks who own a kindle, he is a “big fan” of the device. And he’s busy. Really busy. I caught up with him in Dallas on the last day of the Ingram Micro Seismic Partner Conference. Putting Jason’s schedule aside for a moment, I recognize that everyone is different; however I’ve noticed that Kindle users are what I’d call “intelligent purveyors of knowledge”. That is, they typically are success driven people and they see the Kindle as a tool that allows them to harness and scale the power of reading to new levels of efficiency and convenience (for example being able to carry many, many books with them at any time, or download books on the fly).

I scheduled 10 minutes with Jason to discuss the changes in the Kindle 2, as well as how he uses his Kindle for business and personal use. Jason explained that he’d received the Kindle as a gift and was hooked.  Not only does Jason use the device for reading books, but he also enjoys magazines and even a journey onto the internet utilizing its built in browser.

If don’t have a Kindle you may not be aware of the web portal that Amazon provides to manage single or multiple Kindle’s (and iphones). Your books are backed up and ready to be sent to your device of choice. Magazines and newspapers work in the same way, however they are delivered daily, weekly, or monthly to your device automatically; ready to read. You can also send your own documents (Word, PDF, etc.) to the device via e-mail for later viewing. In fact, I am working on a method to have our CSG Reports as well as our free monthly technology newsletter delivered directly to Kindle! (wouldn’t that be neat!)

Go ahead and check out the HD video above for some “real world” commentary on Amazon’s “WhisperNet’, the Kindle 2 re-design as well as Jason’s recommended reading list. If you have any questions regarding the Kindle, go ahead and post them here.